Customer Reviews

Skull Snaps

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Is it for "It's a New Day" by any chance? If you don't have this, then click "Buy Now" and add one of the all-time classics to your collection. By itself, this fantastic tune justifies the price of admission. And if you're a beatmonger digging deeper? Weeeell.... the rest of this album is an enjoyable, if inessential, slice of soul'n'funk. You _can_ live without it. I guess it's a shame the enigmatic Skull Snaps never got more material onto disc. But when your only album includes one of eternity's phattest drum breaks, I'd say you've done enough already.

This is the only album the skull snasps ever cut, which is as much of a shame as the fact that the album is out of print.

While highly prized by DJs for a couple of famously sampled drum breaks, this isn't really a funk album. Don't let the spooky cover fool you either -- (the) Skull Snaps are (or were) a vocal group in a more or loess motown mode.

Their harmonies aren't as intricate as those of some of their contemporaries, and none of ther voices is what you'd call polished. Nonetheless, every song is tight, none of drag on, and the raw performaces and production of the LP contibute to its very funky feel.

The backing band is an exceptionally tight funk rhythm section that keeps things moving even when strings dominate the mix. Don't get the idea that this is a syrupy lounge album, though -- the string section is used here sparingly, like a spice -- and to great effect, often in unison with the horns, integrated into the rhthmy instead of just wallpaper.

Only a couple songs (like their interpretation of "Tresspassin'") are what you'd call actual funk tracks, but every tune is memorable for its melody and groove without getting repetetive.

I'd recommend this especially highly to fans of soul that filrts with funk, like Norman Whitfield era Temptations, Undisputed Truth, or maybe Curtis Mayfield. Fans of vocal-oriented Parliament albums like "Up for the Downstroke" will surely dig it as well.